DESTIN, Florida -- As Tennessee's coach, Butch Jones has yet to play a down against anyone, let alone one of the Vols' top rivals, Alabama.

The Michigan native isn't responsible for what's happened over the past six years, a time span that has included six consecutive Alabama victories, all but one of which was in dominant fashion (the other being a heartbreaking, 12-10 loss thanks to a Terrence Cody field goal block).

Jones, though, has taken it upon himself to fix what's become an unhealthy rivalry -- competitively, at least -- during a time when some of the league's coaches are lobbying to abolish permanent, cross-divisional pairings.

"I
understand the magnitude of that game and I respect everything that
Alabama has," Jones said Tuesday during the SEC's Spring Meetings. "But also for us to make it a rivalry game, we've got to
start winning a few of those games as well."

That could be a tough task to accomplish in Year 1, as the Vols will travel to Bryant-Denny Stadium on Oct. 26 with their fourth coach since 2008, an offense that will feature a new quarterback and a slew of new faces at wide receiver and a defense that surrendered more than 471 yards and 35 points per game in 2012. Alabama will also get Tennessee after a particularly brutal five-game stretch that includes teams such as Oregon, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

In his six years as a FBS head coach (three at Central Michigan, three at Cincinnati), Jones, who replaced the fired Derek Dooley, has experienced just one losing season.

"We have proof behind what we've done because we've
done it at two other stops, and winning is hard," Jones said. "We always use a
phrase in our program; inches make the champion. And you're really in
the SEC, you're competing for those inches each and every day. We
established the foundation and the foundation of any great
organization or football program is the players and it's a unity and
purpose. That's what we're building."

Saban said the Tennessee-Alabama Third Saturday in October rivalry, which dates back to 1901 and has featured 105 meetings, "is important to the fans and the tradition." The past six years, he said, shouldn't be used as a reason for such a long-term change.

"Tennessee will come back," Saban said. "They're one of the premier schools in our league. Alabama's gone through down cycles, LSU has gone through down cycles, Florida has gone through down cycles. It happens to everybody.

"Right now Tennessee is going through a little bit of a down cycle and it's all of a sudden like playing them doesn't count."

LSU coach Les Miles, whose Tigers play perennial SEC power Florida every year, has been one of the most outspoken figures against permanent, cross-division rivals. After Tuesday's meetings, Miles, who cited numerous rivalries that have gone by the wayside in recent years because of conference realignment, said college football "tradition" is "giving way hopefully to a more fair and right way of picking a champion."

Asked if he had a problem playing Florida every year during his time at LSU, Saban said "we played it."Jones' boss, Dave Hart, has been one of the most outspoken backers of maintaining the tradition-rich, Alabama-Tennessee series. Georgia coach Mark Richt said Tuesday that his main priority when it pertained to scheduling centered on maintaining the Auburn-Georgia series.

Though Jones is one of the newest faces to join the Alabama-Tennessee rivalry, he doesn't consider himself to be a novice on its history and meaning.

"I've heard about the Alabama rivalry; I've heard
about the Florida streak," Jones said, referencing the Vols' eight-game losing streak to the Gators. "That's part of building the program.

"Believe me, there isn't anybody who's more educated than I am on
those rivalries and what those games mean to our program but also our
fan base and our alumni, administration and everyone."